Retro Raunch Revisit

The band's classic 2nd album released only 7 months after their forever-altering debut, and featuring 3 of their timeless signature songs now regarded as anthems. With its memorable hard-driving riffs, rumbling bass, pounding rhythm and apocalyptic lyrics decrying war, the album was originally intended to be titled 'War Pigs' but was changed by the record company fearful of backlash from supporters of Vietnam. The album's cover of a triple-exposed warrior wielding sword & shield in a forest at night was meant to convey a theme of madness & the supernatural, and Sabbath was one of the first bands to film early promotional videos for album tracks. PARANOID would serve as a template for countless hard rock 70's kids, and faced controversy in Jun 1974 after a 21yr old British nurse was found dead in her home between a pair of speakers with the album on the turntable. (She had overdosed on sleeping pills with many stating her demise was a suicide over the band's Satanic content but an Inquest later absolved them of any blame). The album would go on to be hero-worshipped by still-heavier bands that followed for the next 4 decades and today is still consistently ranked as one the greatest metal albums of all time. PARANOID remains the band's highest-selling album having sold 9.9 million copies worldwide. Happy 50th Anniversary.